Page 44 - Studio International - November 1969

of Dr Caligari, 'chaos resembles a whirlpool'.
The attraction of the spiral to periods of
spiritual and social crisis has not only depen-
ded, of course, on those inherited symbolical
factors which have been discussed, but also on
its inherent formal character. Its progressive
spatial contraction produces an effect of
visual instability (emphasized in Tatlin's case
by the tension of the deviating diagonal of the
tower itself from the norm position), and its
pulsating contour rejects fixity for essentially
`open-ended' possibilities. This is well demon-
strated in Mannerist spiralling, say, in the
work of Giovanni da Bologna, which neces-
sarily invites the participation of the spectator
in terms of both imagination and physical
activity (`the revolving point of view'). This
concept of changed viewpoint, the parallactic
effect, indeed the 'Vision in Motion', would
have seemed an ideal area of investigation for
the space-time art of the 'twenties (a time also
when art historical interest in Mannerism
would have revealed suitable precedents).
But once the period of revolution and of the
great occult had ended and abstraction as-
sumed its rational, rectilinear, character, the
spiral lost its potency as a form for emotive
use. There are some examples: Itten's 1922
Turm des Feuers of wood and coloured glass
uses spiralling forms to revive the old fire
imagery, and Vasiliyev's Bauhaus exercise
may possibly be a kind of hommage to Tatlin.
But these are both early. That important
apologist of space-time principles, Siegfried
Giedion, interpreted the four-dimensional
implications of the Eiffel tower (itself a signi-
ficant stimulus to Tatlin) chiefly through the
interpenetrations of inner and outer space
experienced while descending the spiral stairs
(while Gropius' and Meyer's 1914 Werkbund
factory staircase showed that the spiral could
function well as a dynamic element within a
rectilinear context). But almost the only
Bauhaus area which furthered such an organic
form was the Stage Workshop. Schlemmer
realized that if man was to organize his
spatial environment and not simply defer to a
mechanical universe, then an ideal space

11
Revolutionary symbolism: Tatlin's 1919 drawing for
his Monument to the Third International.
12
F. Fedovsky: Set for the first act of Lohengrin, c. 1925.
13
Bauhaus form study: Nikol Vasiliyev, Exercise in three-
dimensional and rhythmic forms,1922.
14
`A glimpse into four-dimensional experience' : Siegfried
Giedion's space-time interpretation of the Eiffel tower
(Space, Time and Architecture).
15
Gropius and Meyer, Staircase of a Model Factory,
Cologne, 1914.
16
A Mannerist precedent: Staircase of the Château at
Blois, 1515-24.
17
`Mechanical space-stage phenomena' : Andor
Weininger, Project for a Spherical Theatre, 1926.
18
The Engineer: Tatlin at work on his Monument, by El
Lissitzky, c. 1920.
Machinism as non-art: Grosz and Heartfield, Berlin
Dada Fair, June 1920